"Moonrise Kingdom" opens Friday in Houston after debuting at the Cannes Film Festival and breaking box office records in limited release last month.

When Anderson needed someone to supply the booming voice of a radio newsman warning listeners about a vicious storm, he remembered his friend's father from middle school.

Smith's weather report sets off important twists in the plot. Pay attention to what he says.

"Wes remembered me being on TV when he was in school. It was a hoot doing this," Smith said.

Whipping winds … and whipping an audience into a frenzy should have been old hat for Smith. He anchored the news on weather-obsessed Channel 2 (1967-73) and hurricane-addicted Channel 11 (1976-99).

Smith recorded his part in two sessions at Radio Lounge, a studio in Sugar Land. Anderson, meanwhile, was listening in from thousands of miles away.

"I went into the booth, and Wes directed me, once from Paris and once from New York. I am not an actor by any stretch, but Wes was very understanding as he talked me through the process. I guess the coolest part of all this is telling the story to friends when we go out to dinner," Smith said.

I asked Smith, what's the difference between anchoring a real-life newscast on TV … and pretending you're a newsman in a movie?

"Let's see, I didn't have to wear a tie for the movie," he said. "Second, I didn't write any of the material. I was fairly used to people talking in my ear while I was reading out loud, so that part came pretty naturally," he said.

"I found this process a whole lot of fun and would love to do more of it. That being said, I doubt Hollywood will be beating a path to my door at this stage in my career. Maybe Wes will write another part for me in his next film. That's a hint."

One of the strange things about being a local TV newscaster is, when you're on the air, the station promotes you like crazy. But once you retire or "leave to pursue future endeavors," it's like you never existed.

Smith retired in 1999. He was one of the friendliest, down-to-earth, most professional anchors ever in Houston. So what have you been up to lately?

"My wife, Vicki, and I got bit by the travel bug, big-time, when I worked at Channel 11," Smith said. "They allowed me to travel with the Houston Symphony on four of its overseas trips, as well as Houston Grand Opera when it went to Paris and Cairo. There were quite a few other journeys, including to Berlin when the wall was brought down.

"We're still traveling. I just got back from a fishing trip to Utah. Before that, I spent a week in Cuba - yes, that Cuba. We usually do one international trip a year, a cruise or two, plus a couple of fly-fishing trips to the Rockies. I still work some, do charity events, have become active in my church, read my Kindle and marvel that all this good stuff happened to me. We're blessed!"

Today's trivia

Name the famous book with this incredibly long first line:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Clue: You were supposed to read this book in high school. But probably didn't. Not with a first line like that.

Richman, who's hosted "Man Vs. Food" for five seasons, pits 30 sandwiches from across the U.S. in head-to-head battles like the NCAA basketball tournament.

Richman is starting to show his burger bump. Dude is wearing jackets and coats in summer. The more you have to hide, the more clothes you wear. Old trick. At some point you wind up wearing a bathrobe and a skipper's cap.

I once had a summer job with an insurance company in Newark. You can imagine me working in an office with insurance salespeople, right? I hated that place/job/boss so much, I was constantly running downstairs to buy hot dogs for anybody who asked. I would have eaten tofu to get out of that building.

My favorite current sandwiches: the Hoffy Burger at Demeris Barbecue and the Ken Hoffman New York Hot Dog at Minute Maid Park. What'd you expect me to say?